When was the last time you talked to a fellow customer of your ERP vendor?  At the last user conference, at a recent user group, when you were at another conference and happened to bump into someone using the same solution you are?  Or do you have the chance to do it every day?  If you answered every day – I bet you are a customer of a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) vendor rather than a traditional on-premises ERP.

Why is this?  In a traditional on-premises model I suppose it is because your relationship is most important with the software vendor.  If you are a SaaS customer the community of enterprises that are using the same solution as you is your most important touch point.

Why is this?  Well first, the obvious, in the SaaS model you are all on the same version of the software.  No longer do you need to seek out that another user you want to connect with is running in the same hardware and operating system model you are.  What about what they customized to solve their problems versus what you are looking to accomplish.  In the SaaS world this is not a necessary conversation.

Second, what relationship is really more important to the on-premises ERP vendor – yours with your peers or yours with them?  I subscribe it is more important for them to know what keeps you installing, customizing and deciding on when to upgrade their software – not really what your business is looking to accomplish in using their software.  A SaaS vendor I feel is more concerned with what functionality will allow you to be innovative and how do they make that functionality available to all its users.  By you collaborating with other users, they get the customer buy in to changes, helping to shape their product.

I have been involved in implementing traditional on-premises and now SaaS Administrative Applications for a number of years.  Never in my career have I seen the level of community and sharing is more evident in software implementations that I have under the SaaS model.  And it is working.  I think has a lot to do with the SaaS model but also how the enterprise has begun to embrace various aspects of social networking in all their business operations.  I would be interested in your comments and thoughts.